


Simple

by exyking



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Bottom Nik, First Time, I only say that cos they're quite gratuitous, M/M, Mentions of Slavery, Period typical roman/greek attitudes about bottoming, Pining, Pre-Canon, sex in the bathhouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 01:40:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17336264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exyking/pseuds/exyking
Summary: It is wrong, he knows. It is shameful. In Akielos, no free man of noble rank bends over for another. Not even for a king.But Nik wants.





	Simple

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badaltin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badaltin/gifts).



> I'M SO SORRY THIS IS LATE ELLIOTT, but I wanted to make it fuckin good cos u deserve 👏 it 👏
> 
> I hope this hits the spot ❤❤

They come in from the training grounds after noon, weary from a day spent beating each other to a pulp. Nik finds the exhaustion is satisfying, though. The burn of muscles well used a familiar and comforting reminder of his strength.

They are both drenched in sweat from head to toe, and Nik thinks Damen’s cheeks are a little pinker than usual from the sun. His skin will freckle, if he isn’t careful. He already has a faint dusting of them across his nose and cheeks, only visible if you look closely.

They go together to the baths. Damen strips off his chiton unselfconsciously and dunks a pitcher of cool water over his head that the slaves have left for their use. The water runs down his sweaty skin in rivulets, clinging to his curls and weighing them down against his face. He shakes himself like a dog, flinging droplets of cool water at Nik, who grumbles, and throws his own chiton at Damen in retaliation.

Damen catches it, shooting him a wide toothed grin, and uses it to dry his face. Nik wrinkles his nose; his chiton is covered in sweat and dust. If it bothers Damen, he betrays no sign.

Damen is first into the warm water. He dives under, submerging himself completely before resurfacing like some adonis from a lake, hands smoothing wet hair back from his face, rivulets of it running over the swell of his chest. He’s grown so much, these past years, filling out his considerable height and build. He makes an impressive sight as he looks back at Nik, before wading out into the centre where the pool is deepest. 

“You coming or not?” He asks with a smirk.

Nik watches him a moment longer. When Damen stretches out on his back, arms spread wide, floating like a star in the water, his muscled belly breaches the surface and, below that, the dark curls and soft length of his cock.

Damen has always been brazenly casual about nudity, never thought twice about who might see what, never thought to concern himself with it. Nik has always shared that sentiment. He still does, in a way.

But then, of course, a lot has changed these past few months.

He remembers the moment, when this thing between them began to change. From the curiosity of sexuality that came naturally to boys; gossiping about their slaves and which men and women from the court they most wanted to bed, to a repressed curiosity about each other. It’s to be expected, really, between boys as close as they. They knew each other’s bodies as well as they knew their own, before they ever began to touch.

One drunken night, a year or more ago, and that curiosity had become a reality. He remembers it; sitting beside Damen, too drunk to realise he was staring. Remembers Damen turning to him, something dark and intent in his eyes, before he’d moved closer and, with a surety that Nik was helpless to, kissed his friend on the mouth.

Nik swallows, forces the memory down, and himself to look away. He slides into the bath, sighing as waves lap against him, tense muscles unwinding in the blessedly warm water, and dunks under the surface. When he comes back up for air, he finds Damen before him, smile wide and warm.

Damen moves closer, advancing on him with a confidence, an intentness, that makes Nik’s blood stir. He recognises it for what it is even before Damen cages him in against the walls of the bath, hands resting on the ledge on either side of him. He’s taller, like this. With Nik leaning back against the wall, he stands over him more than half a head. He’s an intimidating sight, even with his wet hair stuck against his face, even with his smile so sweet it makes Nik’s stomach tight. Nik has never been more aware of it than now, with Damen leaning over him, into him, a hair's breadth away.

Unthinkingly, he tilts his head back.

Damen cocks his head, searching Nik’s face languidly with his warm, brown eyes.

“Damen,” Nik says, voice not as steady as he would have liked.

“Nik,” Damen replies, cheekily.

A hand cups Nik’s forearm, nearly large enough to encircle it completely. He takes the final step that closes the distance between him, and Nik feels, with startling alacrity, the full length of Damen’s body pressed against him. He can feel the hardness of his abdomen, the swell of his chest as he breathes slow and deep. He can feel, like a brand against his thigh, the thick, heavy jut of Damen’s cock.

It is hard, Nik can feel it, is so familiar with it he knows it in all its forms. He shivers, thinking that at some point when Damen was watching him, he’d been stirred to arousal. Perhaps thinking of what he wanted to do with Nik. To Nik.

Nik’s own cock has been hard since he entered the water.

Damen’s eyes drop, travelling over him in ravenous fashion until he finds what he is looking for. He smirks, cheeks dimpling. Nik is helpless to those dimples.

Damen slides his thigh forward, slotting it between Nik’s legs, forcing them to part for him. He grinds upwards, hip pressed right against Nik’s cock, the drag of his muscular, hair-coarse thigh a delicious friction that makes Nik’s eyelids flutter.

“Damen,” he groans. His head falls back, his neck displayed, shamelessly submissive. He’s almost surprised, when he feels the hot press of Damen’s lips there.

“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” Damen says against his throat. Nik shivers, feeling his lips move as he speaks.

Nik wants to ask what he’s been thinking about. Nik wants to ask what he wants, what he desires, more than anything, no matter what it is. He wants to give it to him, to see his Damen, his friend, his prince, come undone as he loses himself in the pleasure of Nik’s body.  

But Nik’s reasons are more selfish than just that.

Because this has never been enough. Not for Nik. Not these fumbling hands in the dark, stares over the shoulders of the slaves they’ve shared, a hand after practice, when their blood is hot and lust takes over. Not when dreams of Damen’s hands plague him every night, dreams of his lips, what he can do with them, his _cock,_ how it will taste, how it will feel, inside him, opening him up as sweetly as it opens any slave.

It is wrong, he knows. It is shameful. In Akielos, no free man of noble rank bends over for another. Not even for a king.

But Nik _wants._

“Me too,” Nik says, and before he can let his thoughts slip any further, he bites his lip.

He feels Damen’s thumb against him there then, loosening the hard bite of his teeth against his sensitive flesh. Nik lets him, lets him do whatever he wants. He opens his mouth, perhaps too eager, perhaps revealing too much, but groans all the same when Damen’s thumb presses inside.

Nik’s throat bobs, under Damen’s lips. He sucks on Damen’s finger with an almost fervour. Already this is the closest Nik has ever come to everything he’s wanted.

Damen pulls away.

Nik opens his eyes reluctantly. He straightens, forcing himself to meet Damen’s eyes. His heart stops, at the way Damen is looking at him. Searchingly, calculatingly, _suspiciously._

He would like to think that, even if Damen were to discover his darkest desires, his friend wouldn’t humiliate him for them. That given everything they’ve shared, the life they’ve lived together, their bond would be stronger than the taboo’s that plague Nik’s waking dreams.

In this moment, though, Nik is uncertain.

Perhaps he has revealed too much. Perhaps Damen read his thoughts, in the reactions of his body. Perhaps this is over. Over before it ever truly began. Nik tries to be grateful, tries to hold onto the joy he has felt this past year, the fun he has had. But a year isn’t enough. Not with a man like Damen. He feels a loss akin to grief.

“Nik,” Damen says. Nik closes his eyes, steadies himself. “I-- I want to--”

They open, again. They find Damen staring at him, but there is no suspicion in his stance. Instead, there is, more shockingly than anything, _insecurity._ Doubt. Uncertainty.

“Nik, I want to fuck you.”

Nik’s world grounds to a halt. His heart pounds in his chest, his ears rush with the thunder of his blood. He gasps, he can’t stifle it. He never imagined, not ever, that Damen would just… that he would just _say it._

Perhaps it is different, for a prince. Perhaps he isn’t as ashamed. Perhaps the fear of ridicule and estrangement don’t touch him.

Nik has never envied Damen, not truly. In this moment, however, he can’t breathe for it.

“I’m not a slave, Damianos.”

The words escape him before he can tame them. A token protest, perhaps, but there is a part of him that means it. For all he’s wanted it, yearned for it, so desperately some nights he cannot sleep, the ingrained taboo demands it of him. Perhaps a part of him wonders if Damen feels entitled to it. Perhaps he wonders if Damen thinks of him as lesser, less of a man, less _than_ a man.

“ _No,”_ Damen’s voice is loud and urgent. He holds Nik tightly, so tightly Nik can feel the points of his nails digging into his skin. “No, you’re not. You could never be. Nik, I don’t want you as a man wants a slave. I want you as a man wants a man.”

Nik feels himself shudder. He feels the part of himself that went tense, tight, defensive the second the words left Damen’s lips, unspool. He goes lax, in Damen’s arms. Exactly as he has longed to since long before he could put name to the want.

“I want you not as a mere vessel for my own needs, but from a desire to give you pleasure, and take pleasure from your body,” Damen says. “I want to be close to you it’s-- it’s not enough to--”

Nik moves, only distantly aware of his own actions. He winds his arms around Damen’s neck and pulls him down, pressing their foreheads together.

“I know,” he says. “I want it too.”

He feels Damen shudder, and is so pleased by the thought of it that it's nothing to tilt his head and slot their lips together. It feels as natural as breathing, as easy as the clash of swords. Their kiss is hot and sweet and languid, and Nik savours it so dearly he almost wishes he could simply stop breathing, so that it might go on forever.

Damen pulls away eventually, panting heavily. He presses his forehead to Nik’s again, his arms sliding down Nik’s arms to his waist. He holds Nik against his body, embraces him more intimately than they have ever dared. It’s like a dam has been broken, and the wants and needs and desires they’ve hidden behind it have been irrevocably loosed.

Nik cannot rid the smile from his face.

“How do you want me?” He breathes.

Damen moans lowly, taken with the thought. He doesn’t answer, not with words. Instead he’s lifting Nik up, pushing him over the lip of the bath and setting him down there. He moves up onto the step against the wall, looming over Nik and pushing him flat on his back. The tiles are freezing under him, making goosebumps rise all over his skin. He gasps, arching against them, and Damen descends upon him.

He kisses, licks and bites Nik’s neck, across the front of his throat, across his sensitive pulse point, up to his ear. He takes the lobe into his mouth, nibbling gently, breath hot and loud, and tugs a little when Nik makes a low noise of pleasure. His hands are on Nik’s chest, holding himself up, but they start to travel down, lower, rising and falling over the valley of his hard abdomen, taking time to trace each muscle he finds, until he reaches Nik’s waist.

When he takes Nik’s cock in hand, Nik arches against him again, legs falling open as his mouth goes slack. They’re pressed flush, chest to chest, heart to heart, as Damen begins to stroke him.

“Nik,” Damen says, under his breath, in a voice that Nik wants so desperately to be awe. “You want this?”

Nik is nodding senselessly, too distracted by the slick, smooth slide of Damen’s hand on him.

“I want to suck you,” Damen says.

Nik’s eyes fly open, body and breath stilling as he meets Damen’s eyes. As much as it is taboo for Nik to lay on his back and spread his legs for Damen, it is as much, if not more taboo, for Damen, the future _king,_ to go on his knees and service another man.

The idea of it makes Nik _throb._

“Yes,” he says, breathlessly, even though he wants to protest, insist that Damen should never lower himself for anyone, let alone himself. “Yes, suck me, _please_.”

Perhaps it is for the purpose of equity that Damen wants this, quid pro quo, one concession for another. Nik likes to think, though, that Damen wants it as badly as he.

Damen starts to kiss down his body, tracing the path of his hands with his lips. He sinks back lower into the water, and the lap of waves against the cool tile of the bath is a soothing, comforting sound.

Nik breathes slow and deep, feeling half a moment away from unravelling as Damen dips his tongue into his navel. The sensation makes him squirm, but Damen’s strong hands hold him down. The strength in them, the power of his grip, the way he uses it to keep Nik as he likes, makes Nik’s stomach clench.

“Damen,” he groans, helplessly, when he feels Damen’s lips kiss a trail down his thigh, missing his aching cock deliberately. “Damen, please.”

It should be beneath him to beg, but like this, spread on the floor below the only man he has ever wanted this way, Nik doesn’t care for propriety any longer. He wants more desperately than he has ever wanted in his life, it hardly feels a shameful thing to be honest about it now.

Damen chuckles against his thigh and inhales deeply. The thought that he is smelling Nik’s musk, the masculine scent of his sweat and arousal, makes Nik’s cock jolt against his belly.

He chokes, when Damen finally presses his lips against his hot length. He whines, like a slave, when Damen takes the head of his cock into his mouth and starts to sink down.

It is sloppy and inexpert, Damen has never done this before, and he is no trained pleasure slave. But it is the thought of him, doing this for Nik, the enthusiasm of him, humming and moaning around Nik’s length as he gives himself to his task with a fervour Nik has never seen matched, that almost undoes Nik completely. He reaches out, hands cradling Damen’s hair. He forces himself not to hold too tightly, not to thread his fingers between the strands and tug Damen up and down, at the pace and depth he likes.

Damen looks up at him, mouth spread wide around Nik’s cock, eyes glistening from the pressure of taking Nik deep, and reaches up, holding Nik’s hands against his head, and uses them to push. He sinks low, almost to the base, Nik can feel his throat. He lets out a strangled cry, hips jerking upwards, fucking himself deeper, and Damen takes it beautifully, relaxing his throat, closing his eyes, letting Nik fuck his mouth.

Nik loses himself after that. He holds Damen’s head and guides it up and down on his cock in time with his thrusts. He doesn’t thrust too deeply, not wanting to upset the reflex that would make Damen choke, but Damen takes it so well, so naturally, it’s almost easy to forget he’s never done this before. Nik can’t help but praise him, can’t help but babble senselessly about how good it feels, how good Damen is. It is as it would be with a slave, these gentle words of praise that would encourage them in their task. Damen is not a slave, but he hums and smiles under the praise all the same.

When Nik is a moment away from coming, Damen pulls off, breathing heavily and harshly. He rests his forehead against Nik’s thigh, collecting himself. The sight of him like that is strangely moving. Nik feels a warmth in his chest, blossoming from some hidden place he rarely acknowledges, and strokes Damen’s hair. It is of little use denying himself the pleasure of it now.

Damen looks up at him a short while later, smirking with a sort of glee that makes Nik laugh. Damen clambers back up over him, pulling himself fully out of the bath now. He drips over Nik, cool droplets of water that feel exquisite against his flushed skin. Damen slots himself between Nik’s legs, pulling them over his thighs so Nik’s ass is flush against his lap. He rocks forward, gently, teasingly, and Nik can feel the smooth slide of him between his cheeks. It is a mimicry of what is to come, and it makes Nik shudder in pleasure, makes him close his eyes as he pictures what it would feel like if that hard length was pressed inside him instead.

“There’s oil on the shelves,” Nik says, after a few moments of this blissful torture. “Let me fetch it.”

Damen hums, bending suddenly over Nik, and gently bumping their noses together. “Allow me,” he says.

He presses a lingering, sweet kiss to Nik’s lips and pushes himself up. Nik’s body splashes to the ground as Damen releases him, and he laughs.

Damen returns quickly, going to his knees beside Nik’s prone body and bending low over him. He sets the oil on the ground beside them, turning his attention instead to the long stretches of Nik’s body that he seems no longer able to deny himself the temptation of. He kisses his way down Nik’s chest and belly and thighs, moving until he is again slotted between them. Nik lets himself loose the sweet noises of pleasure that Damen’s attention brings. If only for that grin that Damen shoots him, when he moves to his next target.

Damen unstops the oil, spreading it over his fingers. Nik watches him, feeling a twisting sort of nervousness rising in his belly. He wants this, more desperately than any amount of fear could prevent, but it’s with a certain apprehension that he watches Damen’s hands move between his thighs.

He feels the brush of his oil slick fingers against his entrance like a shock. He jolts, body arching, straight into Damen’s grip. He feels Damen’s thighs move under him again, keeping him arched at this angle, easier for him to do what he does next. The tip of the finger presses in, meeting a tense resistance that comes from inexperience. Nik might be relaxed, but in this, he is as fresh as a virgin.

“Relax,” Damen hums against his belly, bending low over him. “Open for me.”

“I’m trying,” Nik snaps. He would feel embarrassed at the retort, but Damen only chuckles.

The finger slides in with some resistance, and though it burns, the fullness, the heavy slide of it, the presence of Damen inside his body, is the most exquisite form of pleasure Nik has ever endured. He arches again, moaning so loudly it echoes off the tiles. His hips stutter, seeking more, demanding it greedily. Damen crooks a finger inside him, and Nik shouts.

One finger becomes two, and Damen spreads him wide. He scissors his fingers, loosening Nik, practised in the most efficient method. Nik is not as supple as a slave, but his body responds to Damen’s touch the same.

Damen tries for a third, but Nik’s patience has long since worn thin. He has waited so long for this, so long the want is akin to a part of him, and he needs it now, more than the spare thought for a negligible discomfort. He pushes Damen’s hand away and grinds his body down, feeling the hardness of Damen’s cock under him.

“Nik,” Damen groans. Nik feels his arms wrapping around him, looping under his waist and flat against his spine, pulling down hard onto his lap. “Yes, gods, _Nik.”_

It is the breathless pleasure of his tone that tears Nik apart. “Fuck me,” he says. “Damen, my Prince, fuck me.”

The first push of Damen inside him hurts. It hurts in a way that makes Nik’s toes curl, that makes his breath come short and quick, makes a whine rise from deep inside his chest, that doesn’t end until he feels Damen’s hips flush against him. The stretch is deep, wide and so much that tears leak from Nik’s closed eyes.

It is the most beautiful kind of agony, and Nik clutches at Damen desperately to prevent himself from falling apart.

Perhaps it is the taboo, perhaps it is the fact that it is something new, exciting, forbidden thing that he has never done before, but Nik feels overcome but the thought and presence of Damen inside his body, splitting him open on his cock like he has speared so many slaves before him. He moans, unable to silence himself, head tossing back and forth. His eyes flutter, trying to close, but he can’t deny himself the sight of this; Damen above him, looking down at him with a kind of wonder in his eyes.

Damen thrusts slowly at first, stretching him out, letting him become accustomed to the sensation. That is all it takes for the pain to fade, to become something more, taking on an edge of pleasure that makes every nerve feel aflame. Damen’s hips stutter, when Nik squeezes around him, his mouth goes slack and his breath shudders from his open lips. Nik does it again, just to watch Damen’s face crumple. Just to know that it was him who did that.

The breath becomes a growl, and Damen’s arm wind tighter around him, so tight Nik is sure he’ll bruise, and slams Nik down on his cock. Nik arches, crying out, practically screaming his pleasure to the empty bathing chamber. Before he can collect himself, Damen does it again.

Over and over and over he is slammed hard on Damen’s cock, body falling in perfect rhythm of Damen’s every thrust upwards, inside him, so deep Nik can feel it in his throat. It is so much, too much, Nik can scarcely see for the pleasure that seems to blind him. Can scarcely breathe, around every desperate moan for more, Damen, _please._

He doesn’t have a thought to spare for how he must look, how like a slave, mewling for his king’s cock. He doesn’t care, could never bring himself to care, not now, not anymore, not after this. Theomedes himself could point the finger of accusation and Nik would bear it willingly, if only to have this again and again and again.

Damen fucks him with the stamina of a warrior, for so long, so hard, in such ceaseless rhythm their skin has long since dried, the moisture replaced now by the sweat they’ve worked up in their coupling. It makes Nik feel hot and cold all at once, overheated and yet shivering.

He wonders if he could come like this, on Damen’s cock alone. He feels so close, so desperately, wonderfully close, he’s sure he could. He almost wants to, just to see, just to feel what it would be like to be owned by Damen completely.

But, when Damen reaches between them to grasp Nik’s cock in an almost painfully tight grip, Nik doesn’t stop him. He couldn’t, even if he had wanted to. Damen’s touch is all it takes for him to crest that final barrier and spill into Damen’s fist.

Perhaps it is because of Damen’s cock inside him, but Nik’s orgasm seems never to end. It goes on and on in wave after wave of exquisite, overwhelming pleasure until Nik is shaking from it. He still feels, distantly, Damen moving inside him. Fucking him hard and deep still, using his body, wringing everything he has from him. Nik never wants him to stop, never wants to be empty again.

Damen moans Nik’s name when he comes. A breathless, helpless groan that makes Nik wrap his arms around him tight, holding him through it as his hips stutter, as he empties himself inside Nik’s body.

It takes a while, for them to collect themselves. In that time they lay there together, entwined in each other’s arms, no space between them. Their chests rise and fall together in perfect synchronicity, and Nik knows that nothing will ever be more perfect than this.

Eventually Damen pushes himself up, holding himself above Nik’s body on his hands. Nik is still arched over his lap, Damen’s slowly softening cock still buried inside him. Nik feels almost shy, under Damen’s gaze. Feels almost self conscious, in a way he never has, not even when they’ve shared slaves.

“Say something,” Nik says, when Damen does nothing.

Damen grins, and bends low. He kisses Nik, slow and deep and so thorough Nik feels himself stirring again.

“You are magnificent,” Damen says.

Nik snorts. He pushes Damen back, hands curling over his thick shoulders, holding tight. “Is that your bed talk? I’m not as easy as a slave.”

Damen laughs. “No, you’re not,” he says. He nuzzles Nik’s face again, overager and affectionate as a puppy. Nik bears it, smiling. 

They slide together back into the baths, taking turns to wash one another clean, getting distracted when Damen cages him against the wall and fucks his fingers back inside him, in the thin pretext of washing Nik clean. They laugh, they hold each other, they deny themselves nothing and it is more than Nik has ever dreamed. More than he has ever dared to hope and he wants it, wants this, always. For as long as he lives.

But it isn’t that simple.

In just over a year he’ll serve his duty at the Kingsmeet, trading the sprawling, bustling city of Ios for the quiet peace of their sacred estate. In just over a year, Damen will be forced to leave the mantle of boyhood behind, emerging as Crown Prince and heir apparent, and shouldering all the responsibilities that come along with it. Life will never be as simple as this again, never as carefree and full of possibility. Never as casual. Never as intimate, perhaps. Never like this.

Nik doesn’t know how much will change, between them. They’ve been friends their entire life, they’ve shared everything, now more truly than ever before. Damen has always been his better, always been his senior, in everything but age, but he’s never treated Nik that way. Will that change, when he takes his first steps towards kinghood? Will he leave Nik behind, with the last of his childhood? Will this become a memory, a dream, a relic of a time well lived and long past?

Nik doesn’t know if he can bear that.

But he lets Damen take him into his arm, lets him kiss him, touch him, in all the ways Nik has always dreamed and he pretends, if only for now, if only for a little while, that things might be like this forever.  
  



End file.
